York, PA — Members of the York community helped York County Community Foundation (YCCF) continue to advance its vision to create a vibrant York County by awarding 12 grants to nonprofits totaling $59,828.
These grants are part of a new grant making program started this year by YCCF, changing its competitive grant making by inviting members of the community to evaluate grants of $6,000 or less from the Fund for York County and the Hahn Home Fund for Embracing Aging. In January, YCCF invited volunteer grant readers from the larger community to read, score and select which grants to fund to get the perspectives of a broader, more diverse audience.
Grant readers reviewed all 29 applications received during this round of funding and awarded $34,200 from the Fund for York County and $25,628 from Embracing Aging.
Fund for York County grant recipients include:
- $6,000 to Accountability for Life for group transportation to program activities for at-risk adolescents.
- $5,700 to Diakon Child, Family & Community Ministries for Fostering Success, a foster family support group for those families caring for children who have been removed from their biological parents.
- $5,000 to Leg Up Farm to add hydroponics education to the Able Services horticulture program.
- $6,000 to New Hope Ministries for an integrated marketing campaign to bring awareness to a valuable, free, lifechanging workforce development program for low-income northeastern York County residents.
- $6,000 to Rotary Club of York for restoring York City’s Kiwanis Lake to improve water quality and safety.
- $5,500 to Young Thinkers of York, Inc. for STEAM Summer Camp Scholarship Program where students will do hands-on projects in robotics, engineering, technology and science.
Embracing Aging grant recipients include:
- $5,000 to Albright Care Services for The Creative Place at Normandie Ridge to provide seniors with meaningful, process-oriented art projects to stimulate the brain.
- $5,230 to Golden Connection Community Center, Inc. for a memory care family support program.
- $3,000 to Susquehanna Folk Music Society to increase accessibility for older adults at the Susquehanna Folk Music Festival.
- $5,520 to WellSpan Health to address disparity in fall prevention efforts.
- $3,378 to Windy Hill Senior Center for Functional Movement Training for older adults to empower them to move well and often in an individualized exercise setting to improve overall health and wellness.
- $3,500 to York City Parks Conservancy for Pal’s Park, an 1-acre off-leash dog park along the Rail Trail in the heart of York City.
Community grant readers are members of the community who are at least 18 years old, reside in York County, and are not employed by a nonprofit agency serving York County. They participated in grant evaluation training held by the community foundation, and used an online system to read and score the grants.
“We can’t thank our community grant readers enough for their insights and perspectives,” said Lise Levin, Vice President of Community Development at YCCF. “We had 31 grant readers from 10 different zip codes in York County, each bringing their own experiences and expertise to the process. Thanks to each person for their time and effort!”
These community volunteers made the decisions about which submitted grant applications received funding. The readers carefully reviewed each grant application, deliberated its merits, and scored it using a standard scoresheet. The scores were aggregated and grants were awarded to those with the highest scores.
Each of the funded community grant applications falls into the categories funded by YCCF’s Fund for York County and Embracing Aging.
Fund for York County focuses on:
- Education for disadvantaged youth
- Workforce development
- Downtown revitalization in York County cities and boroughs
- Neighborhood revitalization in York City
Embracing Aging focuses on programs and projects serving York Countians age 50 and older.
People interested in becoming a community grant reader for the next round can learn more and sign up by July 22 at www.yccf.org.
